


Run Boy Run

by liru



Series: A Series of Unconnected Stories [4]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series), Video Blogging RPF, jacksepticeye, markiplier - Fandom
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Everyone Is Gay, F/M, Familial Soulmates, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Abuse, M/M, Multi, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Platonic Soulmates, Pre-Relationship, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Sympathetic Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, more will be added as i go
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:33:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23855428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liru/pseuds/liru
Summary: "Run boy run! This world is not made for youRun boy run! They're trying to catch youRun boy run! Running is a victoryRun boy run! Beauty lays behind the hills!"Run Boy Run by Woodkid
Relationships: Liru/Antisepticeye, Liru/Jameson Jackson, Liru/Wilford Warfstache, Remus & Liru, Remus Sanders & Antisepticeye, Remus Sanders & Jameson Jackson, Wilford Warfstache & Antisepticeye, Wilford Warfstache & Remus Sanders, Wilford Warfstache/Jameson Jackson
Series: A Series of Unconnected Stories [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1697044
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter one: A Safe Place Preview

**Author's Note:**

> Don't forget to leave a comment!

Anti got into another fight with Jackie today. It wasn’t his fault, he didn’t mean to hurt Chase. The dad just snuck up on him and he just glitched. It wasn’t like Anti knew he wasn’t a threat, he had no idea Chase was even there! He just glitched and accidentally burned him. It wasn’t even that bad, Marvin fixed him up pretty quickly anyway. But apparently that wasn’t good enough for Jackie, he still yelled at Anti and thankfully only managed to get a single shove in before JJ jumped between them. Anti took that distraction to quickly slip from the kitchen and run up to his room, grab the hoodie he nicked from Marvin’s room a while back, it used to be a cloak until he put it on. 

It has a glamour on it that works best when the hood is up, but thankfully when it’s down he can just pass for a cosplayer. Anyway, Anti threw on the hoodie, grabbed his phone and quickly glitched out as fast as he could through his laptop, which is how he is here now. He’s been going here for the past few weeks after finding it by accident. Well more like he was drawn to it and after a really bad fight with Jackie he finally decided to see the place he was drawn to. It’s night time here when it’s day time over in Brighton though, so right now the place is lit with fairy lights. 

It’s a walkway that leads to a small park, with the only thing being a double swing set, a small pond full of fish that glows, he doesn't know how or why but they do. The swing set is in a sand pit that is surrounded by always perfect green grass which in turn, both the walk down to it and the little park itself is surrounded by trees which is where the fairy lights above are connected to and the pathway is just soft grass that was slightly worn from people walking from.

Speaking of, that was where he appeared. Like always, his bare feet land on the soft grass like every night for the past few weeks. He wore shoes at first, but it just made everything uncomfortable and disconnected. More than the constant feeling of being watched was, it was uncomfortable and almost threatening the first night, but it quickly changed to one of curiosity, before the feeling only happened when Anti arrived and right before he left. But right now all the eyes seem to be watching curiously. 

‘ _I wonder why._ ’


	2. Chapter One: A Safe Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anti runs off to his safe place and meets a women who's more than she seems.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget to leave a Comment!

Anti got into another fight with Jackie today. It wasn’t his fault, he didn’t mean to hurt Chase. The dad just snuck up on him and he just glitched. It wasn’t like Anti knew he wasn’t a threat, he had no idea Chase was even there! He just glitched and accidentally burned him. It wasn’t even that bad, Marvin fixed him up pretty quickly anyway. But apparently that wasn’t good enough for Jackie, he still yelled at Anti and thankfully only managed to get a single shove in before JJ jumped between them. Anti took that distraction to quickly slip from the kitchen and run up to his room, grab the hoodie he nicked from Marvin’s room a while back, it used to be a cloak until he put it on. 

It has a glamour on it that works best when the hood is up, but thankfully when it’s down he can just pass for a cosplayer. Anyway, Anti threw on the hoodie, grabbed his phone and quickly glitched out as fast as he could through his laptop, which is how he is here now. He’s been going here for the past few weeks after finding it by accident. Well more like he was drawn to it and after a really bad fight with Jackie he finally decided to see the place he was drawn to. It’s night time here when it’s day time over in Brighton though, so right now the place is lit with fairy lights. 

It’s a walkway that leads to a small park, with the only thing being a double swing set, a small pond full of fish that glows, he doesn't know how or why but they do. The swing set is in a sand pit that is surrounded by always perfect green grass which in turn, both the walk down to it and the little park itself is surrounded by trees which is where the fairy lights above are connected to and the pathway is just soft grass that was slightly worn from people walking from.

Speaking of, that was where he appeared. Like always, his bare feet land on the soft grass like every night for the past few weeks. He wore shoes at first, but it just made everything uncomfortable and disconnected. More than the constant feeling of being watched was, it was uncomfortable and almost threatening the first night, but it quickly changed to one of curiosity, before the feeling only happened when Anti arrived and right before he left. But right now all the eyes seem to be watching curiously. 

‘ _I wonder why._ ’

Anti shrugs it off, putting on some music on my phone, putting the headphones in his ears before walking down the path. He ignores the feeling of being watched although he is a bit nervous as to why they are before he decides to focus on the mere feeling of comfort this place brought. He gets to the area with the swings sets and pond and begins to walk over but freezes seeing something sitting on one of the swings that was wrapped in cloth. From where he stood he can smell warm chocolate chip cookies.

His stomach growls, reminding him that he hasn't eaten in almost a day. He walks over seeing a note on it. Picking it up and his stomach drops a little reading it.

_To the man who visits my swings every night, I made you some cookies. Hope they taste good!:)_

Confused and Anti looks back down at the, apparently, cookie filled bundle of cloth and quickly opens it. The smell is absolutely divine, like walking into your house after a stressful day and seeing a batch of freshly baked cookies waiting on the table for you, made by someone you love. He quickly picks up the bundle sitting down and sets it on his lap as he sits down, nearly ripping out the headphones when they get in the way and shoving them into the pocket of the sweatshirt with his phone.

He grabs one, bringing it up to his mouth and immediately takes a bite and proceeds to moan in delight. 

‘ _This is the best cookie I've ever had, and it’s still warm._ ’ He doesn't even register that the person who left them might still be around. I probably eat around four of them when the breeze grows noticeable, picking up excited whispers. I look around slightly confused, knowing the whispers are coming from. They didn’t feel bad or anything, if anything it felt almost comforting. 

‘ _Christ, how fucked up to I have to be to find strange whispers coming from a dark forest comforting._ ’

He quickly wipes his mouth of any melted chocolate and crumbs with his sleeve and stops slightly as he faintly hears the sound of someone walking barefoot on grass. Straining his ears, he tries to hear where they’re coming from over the whispers before they suddenly stop.

“Hello.” A feminine voice speaks from behind him.

Anti jumps slightly, nearly knocking the cookies off his lap and snaps his head towards the voice. He freezes seeing the woman behind it. First thing first, she was tall, six foot at least. She has natural tan skin and long, and he means long, it looks like it would be at her heels if it wasn’t braided, golden blonde hair that has what looks like actual gold highlights. A soft and comforting face that he can’t help but find familiar, Midnight Blue eyes that shine with mystery and a small amused but kind smile.

“I see you got the cookies.” She cocks her head to the side slightly as Anti’s face flushes red at the realization that he probably stared at her for a full minute. She giggles slightly walking to the second swing and he can’t help but follow her with his eyes, trying to find out why she seems so familiar.

“Who are you?” He blurts out as she sits down. She looks surprised for a second before her face falls back into the kind but amused smile.

“My name is Liru, I own this place.” She answers patiently, like she expects him to interrogate her or something. He quickly looks down at his lap feeling her eyes on the side of his head.

“I hope you like the cookies.” Anti nods a bit, not wanting to look at her, not only embarrassed from getting caught but also from nerves, worried that she might try and hurt him or at the very least yell, like a normal person would.

“What's your name?” He freezes slightly but refuses to answer, not wanting to risk the glamour breaking. He quickly stands up and sets the cookies down on the swing before saying,

“S-sorry for intruding, I’ll leave now.” He fights back any glitches and quickly goes to walk down the path before she stops him.

“You don’t have to leave sweetie, anyone who comes to a little swing set at night, six miles from the nearest road and maybe twenty or so from the nearest town, every-night for the past few weeks is clearly needing to get away from something.” He freezes, wondering A. where the fuck he is and B. why the hell she’s letting him stay when he’s been trespassing. Jackie would have beat the shit out of him if he caught Anti going into his room let alone his property, and especially every night for the past four weeks.

He looks at her, confusion painted over his face while she just smiles sweetly before seeming to think for a minute.

“Actually, how about you come with me.” She says in a light tone, standing back up with a bounce. Anti jerks back in surprise, feeling more confused than anything.

“W-what?” He asks when he finally finds his voice, his heart racing in his chest as he suddenly feels rather shy. She smiles kindly walking over to him.

“I have plenty of warm food waiting at home and you obviously don’t want to go back to wherever it is you came from.” His heart jumps to his throat just as his stomach growls causing any denial and declination to die. She just gives him a kind look, her features soft with a small smile and slightly raised eyebrows.

“Come with me.” She pushes a warm bundle into his hands and he instinctively takes it, looking down he sees it’s the bundle of cookies.

‘ _When did she grab these?_ ’ as far as he knows she hadn’t even reached over to grab them. She begins to walk down the path and after looking after her for a few seconds, debating, he quickly follows after her. He hears a small sound of satisfaction from her that he might not have picked up if he didn’t have enhanced hearing. 

Looking over her form, he notes that she isn’t wearing shoes but she is wearing black shorts with little white stars all over them and a black sweatshirt that he noticed hung off her shoulders and a little white outline of planets on it. He also noticed the way her hair is braided is like she had to have someone else braid it. His heart jumps to my throat at the thought of some else being there. 

‘ _I mean I shouldn’t even be going with her but there's just something… familiar, about her._ ’ He tries not to stir in the feeling, it reminds him too much of his bro-... the others. He decides to break the quiet, beginning to become irritated at the static in his head getting louder the static sound like someone telling him to leave.

“So do you live with anyone?” He tries to keep his voice even but when she looks back at him slightly he can feel my mouth go dry. She smiles softly which relaxes him a little bit before she looks back ahead.

“Nope, just me.” He tilts his head slightly a bit at that but doesn't press further. They walk in silence for a few more minutes before a rather large manor comes into view. It seemed to be made out of just wood, stone, the occasional metal and the glass in the windows. Not to mention the giant ass garden that was full of plants and flowers that Anti couldn’t tell you what they were for the life of him.

She giggles and he quickly snaps his attention to her, noticing she was a bit further away but turned to him.

“Come on, if you want I can show you the garden another time. For now dinner.” She states with a wave of the hand to follow her before she turns back towards the manor and continues walking. He looks back at the garden, her offer ringing in my head. 

‘I might take her up on that offer.’ He’s always loved plants and animals and the thought of learning about more excites me a little. 

Anti quickly shakes himself out of his thoughts and quickly jogs after her until he’s a few feet behind her, not wanting to get too close and make her uncomfortable. He looks around noticing that there were lighting bugs fluttering around the flowers that lead up the walkway to the door and the feeling of familiarity only seems to increase. She opens the door and steps aside and the smell of roasted meat and potatoes and cookies fills the air. His face turns a fiery red as his stomach growls and even more so when she chuckles.

“Come on in. And if you want you can take off your sweatshirt if you want, it’s kinda warm in here.” He walks into the house just shaking his head a little and notices that the inside is light rather dimly.

“How come it’s so… dim?” He asks as she closes the door behind him.

“I’m not a fan of bright lights at night, hurts my eyes and irritates the cats.” He perked up a bit at that.

“You have cats?” Anti can’t help the excitement from creeping into his voice as he looks at her. She just smiles fondly, walking down the hallway, Anti close behind, before responding.

“Yup. Two, A black and white Norwegian forest cat named Izzabella and a white ragdoll named Marvin.” He stumbles over his feet a bit, slapping a hand to his mouth trying and failing to hold back laughter. She stops turning to him with an eyebrow raised.

“Something funny?” He quickly stops, cheeks heating up in embarrassment.

“O-oh, uh n-no, it’s just uh, you see, one of my b-brother’s names is Marvin, a-and he’s known to a-act like a-a cat.” Marvin’s disgusted face flashes his mind from the time he tried to remind him that we’re brothers or, well, supposed to be. 

She relaxes again before turning around and saying in a sweet high-pitched voice,

“Babies!” which is quickly followed by the sound of two tinkling bells, one moving erratically and approaching quickly while the other soft and approaching at a normal speed, for a cat at least. Within seconds he sees a white blur launch itself at her which she catches readily as it begins letting out loud purrs. He looks at it a bit surprised with what it just did but melts a little seeing how small it was.

It was extremely fluffy and white and had it’s head buried under her chin and had it’s paws on either side of her neck as if trying to hug her. She giggles petting it’s back while it proceeds to purr louder at the affection.

“This little guy is Marvin, the cat obviously.” He goes to say something but freezes when something rubs up against his legs. Looking down quickly he can see a fluffy black and white cat with stunning green eyes and a gold ring around them looking up at him purring loudly. He looks at the cat confused and also rather joyful but he tries not to touch it. He doesn’t want to scare it off.

“That’s Izzabella. She wants you to pet her ya know?” He snaps his attention to her and sees her watching him with a smile with her tongue poking through her side teeth and the white cat watching me with curious green eyes with a golden ring around it’s pupils. The cat below him lets out a squeaky meow before pawing at his leg. He looks down at it and after a few seconds he leans over and lets her stiff his hand before she begins rubbing against his palm.

Anti melts at the sight and begins to pet the cat's head a bit cautiously, still worried he might scare her. Liru makes a sound of approval as she sets the white cat down with a small smile on her face, glad that two of her familiars seem to have warmed up to the almost familiar stranger so quickly.

“Come, while the food is still warm.” The green haired man looks up at her just as she begins to walk down the hallway. He quickly scratches behind Izzabella’s ear before getting up and quickly following after her down the hallway. 

‘ _She has a lot of interesting things._ ’ He thinks as they pass by a painting of a large and unnerving familiar castle surrounded in what looks like miles of some type of garden. She takes him to a large living room connected to a dining room that looks like that could fit all of the septics, and then some. And it looks like the comfiest place he’s ever seen and all the seats look soft enough to fall asleep on and the lighting is nice with fairy lights lining the ceiling. Looking at the rather big T.V. he can see a YouTube video paused, it looks like some Steven Universe song.

Anti watches as she goes over to a remote sitting on a coffee table and unpauses the song.

“I hope you don’t mind the music. It’s a bit difficult for me to do much without it.” She informs him as the familiar sound of “It’s Over, Isn’t It” begins to play.

“I don’t mind. I’m usually the same way anyway.” She smiles as she sets the remote down and walks over and he barely notices how her hand seemed to twitch towards her stomach area. She leads him over to a decent sized round wooden table, probably big enough to fit six or so people around it.

“Sit in any spot you like…” She pauses as she begins to walk to the kitchen but stops in the doorway.

“I just realized that I never got your name.” She turns to Anti with an almost sheepish smile. He look at her a bit confused, remembering that she did ask him- 

‘ _Oh. I forgot to tell her._ ’ His face begins to turn red with embarrassment before answering,

“I-It’s Anti- I mean!” FUCK! She cuts him off with a small laugh before he can scramble to find a fake name.

“It’s alright sweetie, if that's your preferred name then you don’t have to tell me any other.” She has a soft smile as she looks at him and his heart jumps to his throat at the familiar nickname. She turns and walks into the kitchen while he sits at a random spot at the table while trying to figure out why she just seems so familiar. Putting his head in his arms on the table, he listens to the sound of her moving around the kitchen and putting stuff on plates, noticing that she's just barely singing a song different than to the one that was playing.

He doubts he would have even heard it if he was human. Closing his eyes and trying to focus on the lyrics but the only thing he can pick up is, “ ** _And disappear in the trees._** ”

Something flashes through his mind, someone with blonde hair like the sun and kind blue eyes singing down to… him? For some reason they look like Liru but with what are most likely multiple soul-marks on her face. His throat closes up as I recognize Marvin’s on her forehead the same place as it is on JJ and Jackie’s on her right cheek beneath her eye, covering most of the scar that went up her cheek from under her jaw. Anti knows that one is Jackie’s because it’s on the back of JJ’s left hand and for some reason, he doesn’t know why, told him.

He can see her mouth moving and focusing, he can faintly hear her singing. Thinking it’s the same one that Liru was singing if the tune was anything to go by.

“ _ **Tomorrow is another day**_

 _ **And you won't have to hide away.**_ ”

She brings up his(?) hand to her mouth as he realizes that their fingers are intertwined, and presses a few kisses to his(?) knuckles before setting their hands down on his(?) stomach. And for some reason, instead of feeling flustered or disturbed like he knows he should when someone he doesn’t know does something like that, he just feels content.

“ ** _You’ll be a man, boy!_**

 ** _But for now it’s time to run, it’s time to run!_** ”

She looks like she’s going to keep singing but he’s suddenly yanked from… whatever that was by the sound of loud and malicious, distorted hissing in his ear. Anti jumps opening his eyes and jerking back in his chair just as the door to the kitchen opens and Liru walks out with a plate of food for him and a glass of water. She stops seeing his distress as the two cats rub against her leg before looking at the startled and disturbed man.

“Is everything okay honey?” She walks over quickly and sets his food and water on the table in front of him, looking down at him concerned. She goes to put a hand on his shoulder before stopping herself and putting it back at her side. Anti nods a bit shakily before forcing himself to calm down somewhat.

“I-I’m fįņe.” His voice almost glitches when he sits normally, clearing his throat trying to pass it off as a voice crack.

“You sure?”

“Yeah.” He says, voice clearer this time as he nods his head. “I’m fine, just thought I heard something. She looks at him still worried as the cats sit at either side of him and watch him.

“Well, if you're sure.” She smiles a little again but also becomes a bit more concerned when his stomach growls again. When's the last time he ate?

“Well help yourself, don’t be afraid to ask for seconds, I made plenty of food. And,” she looks at the cats who are purring up at him with their best kitten faces, “Don’t give them anything, they’ve already had their share.”

He nods rather eagerly, almost causing his hood to fall as she turns and walks back into the kitchen to grab her own food as Anti happily and hungerly digs in. She comes back about a minute later with her food and some water and sits across from him, noting with a light frown on how he’s wolfing down his food. She puts on a smile as he looks up at her and she resists the urge to peek through the scarily familiar magic surrounding him, hiding his identity.

“Well I'm glad you like it honey.” He ducks his head a little hiding an embarrassed blush. 

“By the way about your name,” He tenses just as he goes to take another bite. “It’s from that Jacksepticeye guy, right?” He relaxes a little, taking the help with the lie as he nods shyly.

“Um, yeah, yeah. Do you watch him?”

“From time to time. It’s nice to hear a familiar voice every now and again.” He looks at her a bit confused and the sound of Jack laughing fills his head along with the image of what has to be him sitting on the woman's lap while she has a happy grin on her face flashes through his mind before fading within seconds.

“Do you know him?” She fumbles a little with her fork as she realizes what she said and quickly responds,

“No, but my kids would watch him a lot.” His head snaps up to her shocked. She has kids?!

“You have kids?!” he exclaims in shock, she cannot be older than twenty-three. She pauses for a second before nodding and eating a bite of her food.

“I have five, but only two of them are biological.” Anti had nearly choked at that.

“How old are they?” He asks his voice filled with disbelief and shock. She gives him a slightly strained smile. It always hurts to talk about them when they’re so far away.

“Would you believe me if I told you my eldest is nineteen and youngest seventeen?”

“No.” Is his deadpan answer. She laughs a little at that despite the absence of them literally pulling her soul taut. 

“Well they are, adopted though the oldest is twenty-one.” He just looks her over confused, not really believing that.

“How old are you?” She raises an eyebrow at him and he can suddenly see how she is a mom.

“It’s quite rude to ask a woman her age ya know?” In reality she doesn’t mind but she can’t think of a plausible age off the top of her head without it seeming weird. She’s actually 2,449 but, it’s not like she could tell him that. He looks down at his now empty plate sheepishly at that. She just chuckles softly as she eats a bit more.

“Would you like some more?” She asks after a few minutes of silence. He jumps at the sudden sound of her voice and quickly looks up at her. She hides a frown, hopping that he was just startled and not scared.

“O-oh um… sure.” She smiles and gets up and goes and grabs his plate and glass and goes back into the kitchen. She comes back a minute later and sets his food and drink in front of him before going back to her spot and continuing to eat. Anti quickly begins eating his food but at a slower rate as he tries to think about the fact that he should head back soon, and also ignore the cats who were giving him kitten eyes that reminded him a bit of JJ. 

Once they were both done eating Anti lets out a loud yawn that he quickly tries to stifle. Liru smiles softly and collects the plates and glasses while saying,

“You’re more than welcome to stay the night if you wish.” He looks at her, more confused than when she offered him dinner as she walks back into the kitchen.

‘ _Why is she being so nice to me?_ ’ As far as he knows people who’ve just met him seem to either loathe him or they’re afraid of him, well, minus JJ and Robbie but doc thinks it’s some form Stockholm syndrome with JJ, but he knows for a fact that's not true. JJ is the only reason Anti is the way he is now, no longer stitched together like patch work to whatever was using him. And Robbie… Robbie’s the newest member of the family, shocked the hell out of everyone when Chase of all people came back with the lilac “zombie” only he’s not a zombie. They don’t really know what he is but he always seems to gravitate towards Jack, JJ or Anti for whatever reason.

And for some reason he always seems to know when the voice and static start becoming too loud for him to ignore and try and control him again. He always finds him with JJ who at this point no longer needs any convincing to follow him to Anti when he approaches him. Anti snaps back to reality when Liru comes through the kitchen door and both cats get up and bolt over to the couches and hop onto their favorite cushions. She smiles at them before turning her attention to Anti.

“Would you like to stay tonight? I have a few guest bedrooms or if you want you can sleep on the couch.” She says giving him a look that feels like home. He barely thinks before he’s nodding.

“Y-Yeah, yeah… I’d like that.” She smiles happily at the answer, she doesn’t know why but she knows she can trust him not to do anything bad.

“Great! Would you like to sleep in one of the guest rooms or one of the couches?”

“The couch is fine.” He smiles a bit sheepishly up at her, “I don’t want to intrude more than I already have.”

“Oh honey you aren’t intruding at all! But if that's what you want I won't argue with it. Just go and choose which one you want to sleep on and I’ll go get you some blankets and pillows.” She gives him one last smile before quickly making her way through the living room and the hallway and disappearing upstairs.

Anti gets up and pushes his chair in before going over to the couch looking them over before sitting on the softest looking one and practically melting into the cushions. He knows that he should head home, that he really should sleep at a strangers house, especially when they aren’t an ego or anything like that. But he’s just so tired and comfortable that he never wants to leave. He closes his eyes listening to the song that just begins playing as Liru comes back with a few blankets and pillows.

“Alright then, here you are.” She goes and sets the pile next to him so he can set up his area however he likes. He sits up looking at them before looking up at her.

“Thank you.” He says in a quiet voice and he looks at the t.v. thats playing the song and she looks as well with a small smile and sings along with the last of Rose’s part.

“ _ **I like the way… Human beings play.**_ ”

Anti quickly snaps his attention to her, rather shocked that she’s singing along.

“ _ **And I like playing along,**_

 _ **Oh- oo, oh oh, woh oh.**_ ”

She looks at him and giggles seeing the look on his face. He looks away, his face turning a deep red.

“Goodnight honey, sleep well. You can watch anything you’d like or listen to anything, just turn it off if you leave before I’m up okay?” He nods in agreement and she makes a small sound of satisfaction before going back upstairs, Izzy getting up and quickly following after her while Marvin the Cat stays behind.

Anti gets up and makes his little makeshift bed, deciding to let the music play to help him sleep. As soon as he’s under the blankets the white cat hops up and lays on his chest and begins to purr. He smiles a little at the cat and reaches up letting it sniff his hand before it rubs its face into his hand. He pets the cat becoming rather tired from the purring that made him feel safe and if he didn’t know any better he’d think the scar was beginning to fade just by the feel of it.

“Ya know,” He says quietly to the cat who looks at him while he scratches under its chin, “You’re a lot nicer than my brother Marvin, you even seem like you care.”

The cat looks at him with a confused look and for a second Anti almost thinks he can understand him.

“Your owner is really nice too. I think that's the first meal that hasn’t been brought to me by JJ or hexed by Marvin. The human obviously,” He pets the cat's head who just stares at him with an almost worried look. “You’re too cute for that anyway.”

He smiles as he looks up at the ceiling, setting his hand on his stomach and the cat rubs its head against his chin as it sprawls out over him. He smiles a little hoping the blonde wouldn’t mind him coming back as he closes eyes and quickly falls asleep.

Meanwhile Liru is crawling into bed in an pink satin shirt that used to belong to her Fajrokraĉulo before he died. She takes a shaky breath as she covers herself staring at the ceiling through the dark while Izzy sleeps at the foot of her bed. She normally tries to stay up for at least a couple hours after dinner but the more she’s away from any of her soul-mates the more drained she gets. But it’s not like she’s gonna tell them that. They don’t need to worry about that.

She closes her eyes, rolling over laying there for a few minutes until she feels the spot next to her dip. She opens her eyes almost immediately at the familiar soul and damn near cries at the sight of her youngest son sitting on his knees next to her in pajamas and his oversized purple and black patch work jacket.

She moves the covers out of the way and he, just as quickly, crawls next to her and curls into her when she covers them both back up. She pulls him close before he latches to her burying his face into her shirt.

“I miss them.” Comes his muffled whispers.

“I miss them too sweetie.” She whispers into his brown and purple hair. They lay like this for a few minutes, both of them beginning to doze off.

“G’night Mama, I love you.”

“I love you too, my little Nimbus Cloud. Goodnight.” With that, he dozed off. She watches him for a few seconds before closing her eyes, thinking about what's left of her family and the stranger sleeping on her couch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translation:
> 
> Fajrokraĉulo = Firecracker


	3. The Little Fox

JJ is cradling his broken hand as he sits in Anti’s room waiting for him to come back from wherever he goes. Yes he knows, he can sense him whenever he’s around, hell he can sense them all. Well except Robbie though, he has yet to find out why because no matter how observant he is the purple “zombie” always seems to raise more questions than answers. 

He leans his head against the wall, sitting on Anti’s twin bed as he tries to listen to what's going on down stairs but as far as he knows Henrik was taking care of Jackie’s broken nose. He winces a little when his hand throbs again at the memory of his fist connecting with Jackie’s face. He doesn’t regret it though. He wasn’t going to let him insult Anti right after he attacked him for no reason.

He couldn’t even find himself to regret breaking the sweet, innocent mute façade even if it was for about thirty seconds. After that he just sped past Henrik and Jack who had come to see what the commotion was and ignored their looks of shock before he raced upstairs. He thought about going to his room but he knew they would try and ask questions so he went to Anti’s room. They were all too scared of him to go near his room anyway. Which in his opinion, is bullshit because of both past and current experience.

He takes a deep-breath through his nose as he thinks about what used to be, in their past lives that is. They were closer than magnets from what he’s seen already, it makes him feel warm and hopeful that they’ll finally see one day that it wasn’t Anti that did those things but something else. It also infuriates him to no end knowing that no matter what he tells him they assume Anti did something to him.

_Anti._ The same man he watched try not to cry while watching Steven Universe when the diamonds finally stopped seeing Steven as Pink Diamond and saw him for him. Who, if they just sat down like civilized people and talked to him when he asked and helped him, this could have all been avoided. But no, the one time their stubbornness is bad and it almost cost them their brother’s life. Twice.

He quickly forces himself not to go down that memory lane and wipes away any tears that were beginning to form and sits back up straight and checks the time. He frowns when he realizes it’s been almost six hours and Anti still wasn’t back. It would be dinner time soon and he didn’t want him to miss it, he wasn’t able to bring him some yesterday due to the other fussing so he hoped he had at least ate something for breakfast, but, knowing Anti he would be to scared of lashing out at them to go down and grab something.

He suddenly slouches hanging his head as he realizes that the accidental glitch that hurt Chase might’ve reset the progress he was working on with Anti to help him feel better about himself and hopefully, show them that he’s not really bad at all, there’s just something using him to hurt them. JJ sighs deeply and gets up and begins to walk around the rather bare room as he hears someone walk up the stairs, presumably to try and find him… again. They have been every hour still not even bothering to check Anti’s room thankfully for once.

He stops straightening up as he feels static begin to fill the air. He smiles as the sound of the laptop buzzing before Anti appears with his back turned to him. He watches as he takes off the hoodie and tosses it onto the bed before turning around, letting out a startled yelp seeing JJ before slamming a hand to his mouth as footsteps begin to get close to his door. He here’s Chase shout down the stairs,

“He’s still not up here Hen!” They could hear Henrik shout something back before hearing Chase’s footsteps walk away from the door until he’s down stairs. Anti uncovers his mouth and sighs in relief before looking at JJ, confused.

“Is everything okay? You were gone for a while?” Anti turns pale at JJ’s question just as the realization that JJ was here when he came back. 

“W-what?” His voice is quiet, mouth suddenly dry from fear. He didn’t want him to tell the others! Who knows what they’ll do to him!

“Are you okay?” JJ steps closer, keeping his hands to himself, he doesn’t want to accidentally frighten Anti.

“W-why?”

“You were gone for over six hours, are you okay? Did Jackie hurt you?” He stares for a second before shaking his head.

“N-no, he didn’t hurt me.” He watches in confusion as JJ seems to sag in relief before noticing that he’s cradling his right hand.

“What happened?” He barely points to his hand with a worried look. He hopes it wasn’t because of him.

“Oh, this?” He raises the badly bruised hand, it’s obvious that he broke some bones. 

“It’s nothing. Jackie-” Anti’s breath hitches, oh god please don’t say Jackie hurt him because he intervened.

“Decided to think it was a good idea to try and badmouth you and well, that just wasn’t going to fly.” His smile was sharp and mischievous masking his anger towards his eldest brother. Anti feels his body go cold at that.

_‘Oh nonononono, please no.’_

“H-has He-Schneep looked at it, o-or Marvin?” JJ smiles softly at his brother’s concern before shaking his head no. Anti turns rather pale as he nearly shouts but manages to keep his voice down enough so the others down stairs don’t hear.

“What?! Why not?!” He begins to approach him officially in big brother mode before stopping, as if scared he’d glitch and hurt him. JJ frowns at that, he doesn’t want his brother to be scared of hurting him but he lets him be for now.

“I don’t want to hear them talk about you like you're some monster that needs to be put down.” He hisses out angrily at the thought alone, who knows if he’ll be able to keep his temper in check. Anti frowns, and looks at his brother’s badly bruised hand.

“JJ…”

“No, I refuse to listen to their shit.” Anti flinches a little, knowing JJ only actually swears when he is properly angry.

“Please JJ, that's not good, your hand is purple!” JJ looks at him, almost with a pout. He goes to argue again but is cut off by a wince, his hand throbbing. Anti frowns, feeling as if it was his fault that he got hurt.

“Please JJ, at least go to Henrik.” JJ sighs through his nose, annoyed but knows that he really should, it’s been six hours and he hasn’t even been able to put ice on it.

“Fine. But I’m staying in here tonight.” Anti winces a little, he really doesn’t want to hurt him by accident, but he wants his brother to get some help.

“Alright, I… alright just, please go to Hen… Schneep.” JJ fights back a frown. He hates it when Anti’s too scared to say their names.

“I will, I’ll be back with food in a couple hours alright?” Anti nods, anything for him to get help.

“Alright, I’ll see you then.” JJ quickly walks out, not very eager to leave him alone so he wants to get this over with as quickly as possible. He walks down the stairs quickly and he can hear the talking in the kitchen quiet just as he gets to the bottom of the stairs and ignores Jack’s and Marvin’s looks of relief as he makes a beeline for the kitchen already knowing that's where Henrik was.

He enters the kitchen and spots Henrik sitting at the table whose face morphs from stressed into a look of relief at sight of him while Chase’s body visibly sags in relief over from his spot by the sink.

“Jameson…” The doctor quickly gets up and goes to approach JJ who stops him by lifting his broken hand. Henrik’s expression quickly morphs into one of shock as he goes over and grabs JJ’s wrist and examines his hand and his three broken fingers.

“Dammit Jameson…” He lets go of his wrist, “Sit, i’ll be right back. Get him some ice.” He says the last part to Chase before rushing out of the kitchen. JJ sits while Chase grabs a bag of frozen peas in the freezer and wraps them in a cloth before handing it to JJ, a bit nervous from the cold indifference JJ has plastered on his face.

“Why did you do it?” He asks, eyeing the youngest nervously, worried that Anti might’ve done something to him. JJ upon sensing this, levels him with a glare that makes him feel like he’s in the same room as Dark. The dad jerks back in surprise as the pop up film appears next to JJ’s face saying,

**He deserved it.**

Chase swallows nervously, suddenly uncomfortable because he rather agrees that Jackie was out of line when he went for Anti but a little scared to admit it. They sit/stand in awkward and almost suffocating silence until Henrik comes back in who mumbles as he sets the supplies on the table.

“Christ, you can cut through the tension with a knife.” Henrik then proceeds to pull up a chair in front of JJ who removes the frozen peas and gives him his hand. The doctor carefully dries up his hand before bringing out some bandages and begins to carefully wrap up his hand.

“I’m only going to wrap it because Marvin should be able to heal it tomorrow, alright?” He nods just watching as the doctor wraps his hand.

“What in the world even prompted you to hit Jackie, you know very well how strong he is. I’m surprised that you even managed to break his nose.” JJ feels a small sense of pride before he answers, the word box popping up next to his head.

**I’m tired of him treating Anti poorly.** Henrik frowns at that, he should have realized Anti was the cause. He’s noticed that over the past few months that he’s become rather protective over the glitch, goes as far as chewing Marvin out for giving Anti nightmare’s. Not that the doctor knew that was the reason but still. He also, even from the beginning, had defended Anti, claiming that it wasn’t really Anti’s fault it was something else but, the others hadn’t believed him instead choosing to believe it was some sort of Stockholm syndrome.

“JJ…” He hears Chase from behind him and almost stops his wrapping at the glare JJ gives him.

“Honestly, Jameson he is not a good person you really shouldn’t-” He gets cut off by the smaller male slamming his hand on the table causing both the doctor and the dad to jump, damn near growling at said doctor. The subtitle box popping up with the word,

**ENOUGH!!!**

They stare at the “mute” in shock.

“Jameson-”

**NO! I don’t want to hear you talk about something you refuse to understand!** Henrik frowns and can feel worry beginning to bubble as he finishes wrapping his hand up before looking him in the eye. JJ wants nothing more than to leave before he snaps. He wants to at least keep the mute façade for a bit longer.

“Jameson, Anti is not who he tells you. You have to understand that.” The doctor sets out some Ibuprofen for him. JJ looks at them and debates on whether or not the façade is worth keeping, wanting nothing more than to shout at them and force them to remember their past lives with him. If their past selves could see how they treated Anti now they’d flip their shit.

Chase sets a glass of water next to the pills which JJ takes quickly with the water before setting the empty glass back down, trying not to break it. He stands suddenly, startling Henrik for a second before he sighs and stands as well.

**I’ll be down to grab dinner when it’s ready.** He turns and leaves the kitchen before they could say anything, ignoring the worried looks of Marvin and Jack as he goes up stairs and to his room making sure not to slam the door.

JJ looks around his room and sighs leaning against the door before looking at his work desk where a small music box sits on his desk. 

_‘Oh, that's right, I forgot about that.’_ He was making a music box for Anti when he needed to calm down. It had a single wooden Gypsophila painted in an Emerald green that would spin whenever it was opened and music played, specifically Love Like You, his favorite song. He had just finished it and had made it indestructible so Anti wouldn’t have to worry about accidentally glitching and breaking it. Then he went downstairs to grab something to eat only to be greeted with the sight of Jackie shoving Anti.

JJ shakes the thought from his head, the rage towards Jackie beginning to build again. He walks over to the decently organized desk and picks up the black and green box and looks at it, turning it in his hand reading the lyrics he had painstakingly carved into the box and painted in a soothing metallic purple. He smiles as he reads them and can faintly hear Anti singing the lyrics under his breath,

_**“Look at you go I just adore you,”** _

And he did, he adored his big brother because despite the others harsh treatment of him, he still cares for them. And even before JJ was able to finally walk around without the others watching him the whole time he would always sing JJ back to sleep when he woke up panicking from a nightmare or a particularly bad memory. JJ then frowns before setting the music box on the desk. He doesn’t understand why though, why Anti just doesn’t grab their hands and make them remember. 

Granted JJ hasn’t either but at this point he doesn’t want the little cult- sorry, clan, that Marvin is “from”. More like a bunch of power hungry egomaniacs. Thankfully Marvin isn’t actually “from” the clan and thankfully he acts nothing like them, but by god did it really have to be that one. Aren’t there any other magic clans that the universe could have put him in, anyone other than the ones who are obviously using him and trying to control him. Thankfully Marvin is too much of an oblivious wild card at times to actually be controlled by them.

JJ sighs and walks over to his bed and lays down looking at the small box as he thinks feeling rather tired as he does. He tries to remember what the cul-clan is called, he knows he encountered them in his past life, he remembers a lot from everything with his brothers in it at least. It’s just a matter of putting everything in the right order. He closes his eyes as he tries, perhaps he can take a nap and do it after dinner.

_____________

_He’s in the garden again, this time with Anti and Henrik. He and Anti are currently being dotted on by the wisteria pixies while Henrik is pinching the bridge of his nose, eyes scrunched closed while he stands underneath the purple flowered vines._

_**“C’m on Hen, they’re not gonna hurt you.”** _ _Anti giggles out as a few of the tiny pixie’s braid some of his hair putting little flowers in the small braids. He finds it strange when he sees both them with the soulmarks, covered in them. JJ can feel his past self grin at the sight before turning Henrik who already had the purple wisteria pixies fluttering around his hair, trying to pull it out of it’s small pony tail._

_**“Come on Doc! They aren’t gonna bite ya!”** _ _JJ feels himself say a small bout of shock coursing through him, he knows he would talk to them in their past lives but it’s still strange to him._

_**“!@#$ made them,”** _ _JJ jerks in shock despite his past self not moving, very rarely will he hear anyone mention another soulmate's name other than the ones he’s remembered._

_**“I find it very hard to believe they don’t bite.”** _ _and despite the doctors protests he sits down in front of them and takes his brown and soft green hair out of its ponytail, although it barely falls to his shoulders. Both he and Anti grin widely while Anti’s is accompanied by a giggle as more pixies quickly zip over to Henrik, already braiding his hair while he has an annoyed look on his face but it’s obvious he’s hiding a smile._

_JJ jerks suddenly and everything suddenly shifts looking like paint in water before forming again and the next thing he knows he’s waltzing with a woman a few inches taller than he is. Now he’s confused. Looking up at her he can tell she’s one of his soulmates, she’s shaded and covered in soulmarks and it feels like someone put a blindfold over him despite seeing everything just fine. Normally he only remembers at least one thing a night and they aren’t ever about ones he hasn’t met one, sure they’ve shown up before but never alone and those ones are few and far between._

_JJ notices that he can look around here. He sees that he’s in a ballroom with a bunch of other people waltzing their partners and he notices Marvin dancing with a woman with blonde hair down to her heels, she’s wearing a red dress and red and gold mask. For some reason she stands out more than the other soulmates he’s encountered that he doesn’t know, almost like what hides them is scared of her. His heart hammers in his chest as she looks up from Marvin and stares at him. Not his past self but him. His stomach drops and he can feel his soul shiver trying to melt into hers as what he is assuming is her voice fills his head._

‘The Red Magnolia can see between worlds.’ _JJ becomes confused, he always does with this soulmate because she always says something without speaking._

_**“Jameson.”** _ _He snaps his attention to the woman he’s dancing with, quickly pulling away from the feeling the blonde gave just by looking at him. Looking up at the woman he tenses staring up into her ruby eyes behind a black masquerade mask with rubies the same color of her eyes surrounding the mask with black feathers covering her short black hair._

_**“Is everything alright?”** _ _Her voice is soft and quiet with a tinge of worry. Jameson nods, responding quietly,_ **_“Yeah… yeah I’m fine. Just… something felt off for a second.”_ **

_She smiles with sparkly pink lips,_ **_“You felt it too?”_ ** _He nods._

_**“Was it !@#$?”** _ _JJ jerks in surprise again, there's that name again. His past self just nods._

_**“I thought as much, hers always feels like a blanket.”** _ _Jameson tilts his head slightly, for him it feels like her wrapping her arms around him. Now confused and slightly frustrated JJ tries to look around trying to see who they were talking about but seems to be frozen in his past body now._

_**“Do you know why?”** _ _Jameson shakes his head again looking up at the painfully familiar woman who he can’t quite place, the blonde’s riddle ringing in his head. His head begins to hurt as he tries to figure out who he’s dancing with. She smiles before her face falls, her eyes beginning to glow slightly._

_Jameson's face falls as well, worry beginning to bubble that JJ can feel quickly bleed over to him._

_**“!@#$%^?”** _ _His past self asks quietly. She stops moving and Jameson tries to pull her out of the crowd but she appears to be frozen on the spot, whispering under her breath._

_**“!@l$%^ what's wrong?”** _ _JJ’s past self asks, feeling his heart begin to race like he’s being chased._

_**“Run…”** _ _JJ feels his heart drop while past him asks,_ **_“What do you mean? What's wrong?”_ **

_She shoves him away and grips her head and it looks as though the people around them froze mid step as the sound of people rushing over to them filling the suddenly silent ballroom._

_**“C@l!^#!”** _ _He hears both a woman and man shout both voices achingly familiar._

_**“RUN!”** _ _The red eyed woman shouts. And then everything changes again, but now he’s running in a forest with someone being chased. The land creaks and groans as if moving and the sound of wood being blown apart it just might be. In the distance he can hear something roar, full of more rage than an exploding volcano._

_Something green wizs past him and nearly explodes in front of his face if it weren’t for the small figure probably only around 5 feet tall darts towards it and slamming his hands over it, purple lightning covering his hands before he throws it back. Jameson looks towards where it explodes a few people in masks. His stomach drops when he sees that they look similar to the mask Marvin wears, just with different animals._

_His past self doesn’t even stumble as creatures begin to throw themselves out of trees and towards the attackers, seemingly made of the tree themselves if the sound of wood splintering to pieces when one of them explodes is anything to go by. Jameson keeps running, basically grabbing the kid and throwing him ahead of him and out of the way of an incoming blast of blue fire that knocks him back and onto his back._

_The person wearing a white mask with a long beak looks down at him, holding a strange, almost diamond shaped looking sword to his throat. Jameson bares his teeth and snarls up at the man, rage coursing through him. Now this isn’t a surprise to JJ, he’s noticed that his and his brother's past selves have shown… less than human qualities but never once has he heard something so animalistic come from any of them let alone himself. Jameson opens his mouth ready to shout at the man above him but before he can, everything turns black._

___

JJ jerks awake to the sound of Chase shouting “Dinner!” from the kitchen. His hand shoots up, ripping his throat as his heart races, the phantom, feeling of a blade pressed against his throat and fangs digging into his mouth. He reaches a hand up to his mouth and gently prods a canine only to quickly jerk it away at the feeling of something slicing his thumb. He looks at it and pales a little at the sight of blood beading on his thumb. He reaches up in a panic feeling his teeth only to find that they’re human teeth again not… anything else.

He calms himself before looking through the darkness to the clock on the wall seeing that it was little past nine o’clock at night. He pushes himself up with his good hand and gets up before straightening that was out of place before walking over to his desk grabbing a loose rag and whipping the blood away before picking up the music box. He looks at it, turning it in his hand one last time before going and peeking out of his room and looking up and down the hallway to make sure no one else is there.

He steps into the hallway looking around one last time before turning and walking down to Anti’s room. As he approaches the door he listens to hear if Anti is awake or not and he can faintly hear people talking from his computer. JJ relaxes a little before gently knocking on the door.

He hears the voices pause and the sound of someone moving off of a bed almost hesitant before slowly moving towards the door. He frowns slightly and wonders if he can get away with throwing Jackie off the roof, he knows it wouldn’t hurt the hero he can fly after all but dammit it would feel good.

“Anti?” He calls out through the door softly. The footsteps stop for a second before continuing, less hesitant than before this time. He opens the door a crack and Jameson smiles kindly at him through the crack in the door before Anti opens the door more moving aside letting JJ walk in.

He makes sure to keep the box hidden as he walks into the room before turning to Anti as he closes the door. He peeks at the laptop in the bed to see Anti had been watching Steven Universe. He quickly turns to Anti with a smile on his face when Anti turns to him a bit confused before JJ puts his hand out, the music box resting in his palm.

Anti stops, looking at it, his eyebrows furrowing.

“It’s for you!” Jameson tells him trying not to frown at Anti’s hesitant confusion. Anti seems to glitch in surprise looking from the box to Jameson who’s standing there with a smile, holding the box out to him. Anti moves forward and gently picks up the box examining it. He breathes it sharply reading the carved words, his eyes becoming misty. With semi shaking hands, Anti opens the music box and tries his hardest not to cry as the music begins to play with the Babies Breathe spinning in the center.

He knows exactly what that flower means, he knows what the song means and he knows that JJ has just gifted him something that he made himself and Anti can’t even begin to process why he would. Why would JJ bother to make him something after everything he did to him? Why would-

“Do you like it?” Jameson asks sensing the turmoil beginning to build inside of Anti, effectively snapping him out of any bad thoughts. Anti doesn’t even answer and just throws himself at JJ wrapping his arms around him and hugging him tightly. JJ eagerly hugs him back, taking any physical attention he can get knowing Anti is always scared of being touched or touching others.

“Thankyouthankyouthankyou.” Anti whispers happily hugging JJ like a lifeline basically melting into the hug despite being the one who initiated. JJ rubs his back hugging him tightly, smiling widely now.

“It’s no problem, you’re welcome.” He says in a soothing voice, his chin resting on Anti’s shoulder. Anti seems to freeze, realizing what he’s doing and quickly pulls away as if shrinking in on himself.

“S-sorry.” He mumbles. JJ smiles a bit sadly but happy that Anti felt comfortable enough to hug him.

“That's quite alright, I enjoy a good hug!” Anti doesn’t say anything toying with the box in his hands, rubbing his fingers over the smooth painted wood, the feeling soothing him.

“Now! I’ll run down stairs and grab us dinner.” Anti nods a little in a small trance. JJ goes to walk out of the room before Anti processes what he said.

“W-wait,” JJ turns to Anti, a bit confused and see’s Anti setting the Music on the nightstand, “Your hand, I-I’ll help.” 

He turns and goes to follow JJ out of the room, “No.” Anti jerks a little looking at him confused.

“I don’t want you around Jackie after what he tried to pull.” JJ tells him leaving no room for argument, face completely serious, odd for the usually silent man. Anti frowns and goes to argue but JJ quickly cuts him off, 

“Now you put on what you want to watch tonight and I’ll go get the food.” He smiles and turns on his heel and out the door before Anti can say anything. He drops the smile before he gets to the stairs, hurrying down quickly. He straightens himself out before going and walking to the kitchen where Jackie, Jack, Marvin, and Henrik are sitting around the table while Chase is by the stove putting soup into a bowl.

They all turn to him and it quickly becomes tense as Jackie and JJ lock eyes. JJ just gives Jackie a cold look before going over to grab himself and Anti bowls and spoons before making his way upstairs, not even bothering to answer Jack’s question of where he was going.

He quickly makes his way upstairs, careful not to spill anything as he makes his way back to Anti’s room, pausing when he hears the music box accompanied by soft singing. He smiles to himself before lightly tapping the door with his knuckle to let him know he’s back as he pushes the door open just as Anti closes the music box and sets it on his nightstand. 

“Here you go.” Jameson says politely as he hands Anti the bowl and spoon who takes it, sitting criss cross with the computer in the middle of them as he sits next to Anti. He smiles a little seeing Mirror Gem ready to play.

“I hope it’s okay…” Anti says softly. Jameson just smiles reassuringly and gets settled as Anti hits play.

A bowl of soup and a few episodes later, Anti curled up sound asleep next to a tired Jameson whose fading in and out of consciousness. As he slips to sleep, he swears he can hear that black haired woman's voice from earlier, _“We’ll see you again soon, little Fox~”_


End file.
